Homemade Christmas ornaments

[dacjohns]

I almost put this in recycling.

When I was a kid my family didn't have much money and we lived in Alaska where the cost of living was very high. I remember having homemade Christmas ornaments that were basically recycling material.

Tin can lids with the edges cut into different designs and decorated with glitter.

Used camera flash bulbs (anyone remember those?) decorated with glitter.


Later in life some homemade decorations I've seen:

Burned out light bulbs that have been painted with faces and scenes.

Dried vegetation that has been spray painted.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

When I was a kid, we made homemade christmas cookie ornaments. I remember my mom making the mix up, and we cut them out in the design of our choice and decorated. I think she baked them??

I also remember tasting them, saltiest darn cookies I ever ate!

 

[patandchickens]

Seashells, if you have any shoeboxes left from old vacations, make terrific tree ornaments. I've done some (IMO) really beautiful christmas trees that way, just seashells and a few paper butterflies on wires. If you don't want to permanently glue anything to the shells, most any snail-type shell can be hung by curling a piece of strong florist's wire to fit up inside it, then making a sharp bend under the bottom 'tail' of the shell (so it doesn't fall off) and then making the top of the wire into a hook.

I've also been very big on pinecones rolled lightly in glue and then glitter, to sort of 'frost' the tips with glitter. Do not do this with small children in the house, though, as some glitter will inevitably fall off and infest the rugs etc and you don't want a kid inadvertantly rubbing glitter into his/her eyeballs.

Lately I've been making cut paper snowflakes to tape inside the windows. Not christmasy as such, but purty and easy

In principle I like popcorn-strung-on-a-thread-with-needle, but can't actually use it because of the darn popcornivorous cats


Pat

 

[Henrietta23]

When I was a kid, we made homemade christmas cookie ornaments. I remember my mom making the mix up, and we cut them out in the design of our choice and decorated. I think she baked them??

I also remember tasting them, saltiest darn cookies I ever ate!

We did those too. Salt dough. I made some with my son one year and he just had to taste them too. Blech!

 

[patandchickens]

Oh, my FAVORITE homemade christmas ornament of all time...

...is the one I made when I was in Grade 1 and I still have it and it is Required to be hung each year on my parents' tree, I make sure it's there <eg>. It is a walnut, the whole uncracked shell, to which a string was glued for hanging, then the walnut was dipped in glue and then in an incredible quantity of blue glitter. It is like this blue glittery monster walnut thing, with drips preserved for all eternity in the set glue.

It is stupid what we get attached to, isn't it


Pat

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

We do the popcorn and cranberry strands with our kids, but we hang them on the trees outside for the birds in the winter. Kids love it.

 

[Henrietta23]

Oh, my FAVORITE homemade christmas ornament of all time...

...is the one I made when I was in Grade 1 and I still have it and it is Required to be hung each year on my parents' tree, I make sure it's there <eg>. It is a walnut, the whole uncracked shell, to which a string was glued for hanging, then the walnut was dipped in glue and then in an incredible quantity of blue glitter. It is like this blue glittery monster walnut thing, with drips preserved for all eternity in the set glue.

It is stupid what we get attached to, isn't it


Pat

I will have to take a picture of the ornament my mother hangs on her tree every year. It is not hand made though. It is a blue plastic boy who I think is supposed to be a choir boy, only he has this really mad face and an "x" on his forehead like he's been in a fight. The ornament is grubby and its blonde doll hair is really quite disgusting but he MUST go on the tree every year.
I have noodle angels made for me by former students whose names I can't remember that go up every year.

 

[dacjohns]

Here are some of the "nature" ornaments.

 

[Henrietta23]

Here is a salt dough recipe if anyone is intersted. There are many sites about them:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/saltdoughgifttoppers.html

 

[Henrietta23]

OMG!!! How could I forget this one???? My mother found directions for it years ago. You took one of the old small TV Guides (remember those?) and folded the top corner in to the center of each page of two TV guides. Then you glued the two together and spread the pages out. This formed a tree shape that sat on a flat base. A little spray paint and bingo-a table top ornament! We had one for years that came out every Christmas! I tried describing to a veteranarian I worked for once. He thought it was absolutely hysterical. So when I pulled his name for the office Secret Santa that year, guess what he got????
Edited to ad a link to prove I'm not making this up! http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/73714/how_to_make_a_christmas_tree_out_of.html?cat=24